Variation at post-albumin, transferrin and haemoglobin proteins in Moroccan local sheep

Blood biochemical polymorphism of six Moroccan local sheep breeds was studied using three electrophoretic systems: post-albumin, transferrin and haemoglobin Beta. A total of 1263 blood samples from Timahdite, Béni Guil, Sardi, D'man, Béni Ahsen and Boujaâd were tested. All loci sampled were found to be polymorphic. The post-albumin and haemoglobin beta loci exhibited three alleles each, and the transferrin locus showed six to nine alleles. The mean expected heterozygosity varied from 0.331 to 0.491. Genetic distances between breeds, estimated using Cavalli-Sforza's chord measure, were within the range 0.006-0.026. It was concluded that based on the average heterozygosity, D'man, Sardi and Béni Guil breeds may play an important role for the management of Moroccan sheep genetic resources.